Continuing our week of Dalek themed articles, Christopher Morley looks back at the Second Doctor adventure, The Evil Of The Daleks.
Looking across the length & breadth of Dalek
history, its perhaps unsurprising that civil war should feature
fairly prominently ( both here & of course in Remembrance Of
The Daleks, once the Doctor
reaches his Seventh incarnation & develops a habit of rrolling
his rr's, as well as a liking for questionable pullovers). But before
he could even think of dealing with the Imperial & Renegade
factions, the fight was closer to home for his greatest foe..jump in
time with us to 1966, if you will!
A great year for the Second Doctor as well as
English football, though this adventure is sadly lost with the
exception of Episode 2. One for the search & rescue teams to rectify post-haste, you'd think.
But before he can
think of taking Jamie for a quick TARDIS trip to Wembley to watch the
Three Lions beat West Germany in ten days time ( the 'present day'
segments of Evil being
set on July 20 that year, Alf
Ramsey's boys not playing the game of their lives till the 30th),
he's got to use all his cunning to stop the human race from becoming
mindless Dalek slaves & depriving themselves of the chance to
watch their boys lift the World Cup. Well, they (& indeed we the
audience) might never see such happening again- though Roy Hodgson
might prove us wrong this year in Brazil (we hope!).
The beers will
have to stay in the cooler for now- following on from The
Faceless Ones, Sexy has been
pinched & stuck on the back of a lorry. This is actually phase
one of a plan to lure the Second & Jamie, now without Ben &
Polly, to an antiques dealership run by one Edward Waterfield. Nice
enough way to spend a day, you'd think?
He wants more
than just a little help with a few valuations though- specialising in
Victorian fare, he's working with possibly the least likeable
collectors ever. Do they want a nice grandfather clock? Sadly not (
though of course the Master will later prove more receptive to the idea
of one in both The Deadly Assassin & The Keeper Of Traken). What they'd really like is the Doctor himself, as a nice take-home
purchase- without paying of course.
What the devil an antiques man is doing associating with the Daleks is a question worth asking.
Turns out he & his colleague Theodore Maxtible, a scientist &
a greedy one at that, happened to dabble in time travel & may
very well live to regret doing so. The nasty wheeliebins made contact, & they've only gone & kidnapped
Ed's daughter, Victoria! Bit of an own goal by Mr Waterfield.
Theo is somewhat
less panicked though- in exchange for his help he's been promised the
alchemical know-how necessary to turn lead into gold, & maybe a
new razor to help with taming his WG Grace- ish facial fuzz. A series
of clues leads the Doctor & his Scots pal to the shop & the
mystery deepens...
Taking a look
around, Two notes that everything within appears to be a little too
new to fit the ' reproductions' bill. Something's definitely not
quite right, but they'll have to jump back to 1866 to find out what.
Waking up in Maxtible's house ( a very big house, in the country- to
paraphrase Blur) after being gassed by Waterfield in 1966 &
taken for a short hop in their rudimentary time machine- actually a
mirror-lined chamber helped along by static electricity- the Doctor
is soon forced by a Dalek to assist in isolating the ' Human Factor',
with Jamie as the intended test subject. Oh my giddy aunt!
He's more
interested in rescuing Victoria, though, & after winning the
manservant Kemel round to his cause following initial antipathy the
pair succeed in finding the fair lady. As does the Dalek- which they
make light work of destroying with a little helping hand from a
lovely antique fireplace. Who said they can't be functional as well
as pretty, eh?
The Doctor,
though, has been busy isolating human qualities into positronic
brains ( remember Bracewell from Victory Of The Daleks?)
which will be trialled on three willing volunteers. Given the names
of Alpha, Beta & Omega, they go from amoral to playful, almost
overgrown toddlers- which makes the Doctor very happy, the Daleks
less so. They're ordered to return to Skaro, following the '
experiment'.
Everyone else
quickly realises they best follow, as a bomb's been planted in the
house. As everything is falling into place, the first signs of
discontent are becoming apparent. Onwards to Skaro it is then! And
what fun it'll be, you'd imagine.
Omega, one of the
' Humanised Daleks' is boasting a little now that he has an
individual identity, which riles the Black Dalek ( working under the
command of a pre- Parting Of The Ways Dalek
Emperor). Two, Jamie & Maxtible quickly reach this Emperor's '
throne room' having taken advantage of an underground passageway, &
the Doctor seizes his chance to boast that a revolution will soon
change the fundamental nature of both the despot & his subjects.
Unfortunately though, the Emperor also has a trick up his
non-existent sleeve...
Now that he's got
the ' Human Factor', he intends to replace it with a Dalek equivalent
& spread it throughout Earth's history with a little help from
the TARDIS. They've got another think coming if they reckoned on the
McCartney-barnetted Time Lord's help, though! He joins Edward,
Victoria, Kemel in a holding cell.
Powerless to do anything, they
watch as Maxtible is lured through a conversion arch with the promise
of finally getting his hands on the knowledge he so prizes &
becomes a ' Dalek Human' ( the first such result of a test repeated
later with little real variation in Daleks In
Manhattan/Evolution Of The Daleks,
with Sec joining Alpha, Beta & Omega in the ' Human Dalek' ranks
as the Tenth Doctor tries desperately to remember anything from his
days in his Second incarnation that might help him out this time).
Maxtible is
ordered to hypnotise the Second into walking through the arch as
well, which he appears to do willingly- all faith in him shattered, &
it looks like a long stay with their imperial host for everyone else.
But he's been a bit clever in the process..as we'll soon find out.
The Black Dalek orders a party of its workers to stop, & one of
them asks the simple question ' why?'. It's been Humanised! The
Doctor is busy keeping up the charade of being a Dalek, the unlikely team of he &
Maxtible seemingly working to convert humans on a grand scale. Once
Theo's out of the picture though, Two makes a quick adjustment to the
conversion arch. Something big might be about to go off...
Sneaking off back
to the cell containing his pals, he encourages them all to take a
walk through it along with the Daleks ( so that the Humanised among
them can be returned to normal). Amazingly, this is agreed to- at
which point the biggest bluff of all is revealed. All the Daleks who
pass through the arch are now being Humanised at an amazing rate!
Of
course, they'd somehow failed to pay any heed to the notion that the
Doctor himself might not be human, the daft beggars, & now they're about to pay for
it. The first Dalek Civil War is about to begin, without any need for
Cavalier/Roundhead-style costumes for the participants.
In hope that this
is the final end for the universe's most dictatorial race, the
Doctor, Jamie & the quickly orphaned Victoria watch Skaro
seemingly go up in smoke before making it back to Sexy. Where to
next, you ask? Telos, in time for The Tomb Of The Cybermen!
Not before heading off to Wembley after all, cracking open a few
pints & watching Geoff Hurst & Martin Peters help England to
their finest moment on the football field, though- the Second &
his recorder leading everyone in a rousing chorus of the national
anthem, years before ever having to get involved in Dalek politics
once more..
Is Evil of the Daleks your favourite Doctor Who Dalek story? If so make sure you vote in our week long Dalek poll...
